Economy
(Brussels) Today, in its review of the draft budgets of the euro-land countries, the EU Commission passed an opinion about 16 countries that are under the “surveillance” of the Stability and Growth Pact. For 6 of them (Germany, Lithuania, Latvia, Luxembourg, Finland and Netherlands), “the draft budgets – the EU Executive states – meet the requirements” of the Stability and Growth Pact. For 5 countries (Estonia, Ireland, Cyprus, Malta and Slovakia), the draft budgets “turned out to be basically in line” with the Pact. So, the EU Commission will keep watching over these countries. For another 5 countries (Belgium, Italy, Austria, Portugal and Slovenia), the draft budgets “might fail to meet” the requirements of the Pact for 2018. Such countries’ draft budgets “could involve a major deviation from the process of adjustment to the medium-term goal. The projections show that Belgium and Italy do not even meet the debt-reduction goal”. Hence the news of the letter sent to the Italian Government, due to “the continuation of a high level of public debt” that is “a source of concern” and that will require a new review by the EU Commission, next May.
